Four
by Theodora Helena Miller
Summary: A Gryffindor girl with an appetite for adventure, a Slytherin guy who brings conflict with him everywhere, a Ravenclaw girl that ends their arguments, and a Hufflepuff guy that never gives up; Fate has chosen this ragtag bunch for greatness.
1. Chapter 1

I heard the next name called faintly: "South, Vin."

"SLYTHERIN!" The hat yelled. No surprise there… Vin, a guy with long auburn hair, was leaving the stool. He looked up and met my eyes. His were hazel, like a latte except with a hint of amber.

I raised my eyebrows at him and he rolled his eyes.

"_I'm Sage. This compartment free?" I asked, looking around. It was empty except for _him_._

"_Nope." He said insolently. "Go back to your own kind."_

"_I'm not a Muggleborn, I'm incognito. Try it sometime. You were walking around a Muggle train station wearing your robes. Can you imagine the questions they're asking?"_

_He stood up threateningly. "Are you telling me what to do?"_

"_Nope, that was a suggestion rather than a command. Are you trying to pick a fight? Because I am so not a girl you want to annoy."_

"_Oh yeah?"_

_I got up in his face. "Yeah." I replied, matching his challenging tone._

_Meanwhile, all I could think was "wow, his eyes are endless" and "mm, cinnamon toothpaste."_

"Windsor, Ariella."

"_Well, well, well. In a fight already?"_

_I turned to see a tall, willowy girl with boy-short white-blonde hair that was ruffled like she'd stuck her head out the train window. Her eyes and skin were pale like her eyes and her voice was airy, for lack of a better word. She wasn't being a beotch about it, just calmly amused at us._

"_Who are you?" We both asked, then glared at each other for stealing what we were going to say._

"_I'm Ariella but most people call me Ari. How about this: I'll sit between you two and you can ignore each other."_

"_Fine."_

_I sat down as far from him as possible, on the opposite seat and at the far end. Ari laughed and sat across from me, on the same seat as Vin but as far away as possible on said seat._

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Wintell, Brun."

"_Can I sit in here?" Another boy asked. "I'm Brun, by the way." He had brown skin and wavy black hair, and smiled at us politely._

"_Sure." I said, giving Vin a smug look. "We've got _plenty_ of room."_

"Winter, Sage."

I closed my eyes as the hat slipped down my face and covered my ears, giving me a mouthful of lint. "Pff-thuth—yuck."

"Hmm. Let me think." The hat said quietly. "Not a Slytherin, oh no…"

_Haha, dad is going to kill me when he finds that out…_ I thought.

"You're passionate but free-spirited. Interesting. Well, then, I suppose it ought to be… GRYFFINDOR!"

I grinned and stood up, setting the hat on the stool.

"Welcome to Gryffindor." Two people, a guy and a girl, said. They were sixth years, prefects.

I nodded to them and kept walking until I found the crowd of first years.

"I'm Kate." One of them said. "This is Amy. That's Jack and Lee."

Kate was slightly chubby with brown hair and pale, pinkish skin. Amy was Asian with hot pink, short hair that curled inwards to her neck at her chin. Jack had sandy hair and blue eyes with a smattering of freckles on his face. Lee had very short, curly black hair and chocolate brown skin.

A flicker of movement caught my eye. Ariella was waving.

"_Wow, this is awkward." Ariella said after a long silence. "So, Brun, when did you find out you were a wizard?"_

"_When I got my acceptance letter. I was so excited, and grateful because I thought I'd been hallucinating the magic."_

"_Do you know much about the Houses?" She asked._

_He shrugged. "I think I read something about them when I opened my textbooks."_

_She launched into a lengthy explanation of Hogwarts's history and I zoned out, wondering if Vin was wishing we'd gotten off to a better start like I was._

"Sage? Earth to Sage." Lee said.

"Oh. Sorry. What?"

"Food."

I looked down. My God, there was tons of food. I snagged a sirloin and a bottle of catsup, followed by rice, mashed potatoes, corn, peas, carrots, italian bread, and pumpkin juice. Yep, all the food groups—Wait! I pulled a Chocolate Frog out of my pocket and set it on the plate. Now _that_ was better.

"Did you just mix butter, rice, and mashed potatoes?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, the rice adds texture and the butter adds flavor." I replied as soon as I swallowed the steak. "Ooh, pass me one of those rye rolls?"

Amy stared at me. "You eat, like, a lot."

"Always have. My brother says it's a wonder I'm so skinny."

_Wow, Sage, way to put your foot in your mouth._ Amy had been loading her plate with vegetables and fruits and crackers. Now she was looking uncomfortable. To my surprise, Kate was putting real food on her plate—healthy, like fish and vegetables—but real food nonetheless and grinning. "Your stomach must have an undetectable expansion charm on it."

"Hey, Sage, bet you won't eat this." Lee said.

Jack snickered as Lee held the jellybean up. I laughed. "Here, Lee, give me the whole bag." Lee handed the bag over and I took a random handful and ate all of them at once.

"Pepper… Grass… Lemon… Toast… Vomit… Ooh, strawberry!"

A few second years cheered me on. "Eat them, eat them, eat them!"

"Earwax, toffee, peanut butter, earthworms."

"Okay, okay, we get it! You'll eat anything. Just give me back my Bertie Botts!" Lee said through his laughing.

"I won't eat anything. I can't stand cranberry sauce. Or syrup."

And with that, I continued plowing through my food.

Dessert was a spectacular affair during which the fudge plate vanished mysteriously and reappeared in front of me, empty.

"Now that we're all well fed," Headmistress McGonagall said, "Let's get you off to bed. First years, follow your prefects."

Jack whispered in my ear as the scraping of chairs became nearly deafening. "We're sneaking off to explore the castle; you coming?"

I really didn't want to. "Okay! Wait, don't we need a sentry?" I asked, feigning excitement and concern.

"A sen-what?"

"A lookout, someone to cover for you."

"Oh." He looked disappointed.

"I'll do it." I said. "I'm good at this sort of thing. Have fun and promise to tell me everything you see!"

"I promise!"

The four other first years slipped away through the crowds. I nearly ran into the rest of the Gryffindor first years, two guys and three girls.

"Ian." One of the guys said casually. He simply screamed jock, bleach blonde hair with tanned skin and blue eyes.

"I'm Sage Winter."

Ian laughed, sharing a glance with the other guy, an equally tanned and jock-ish guy with dark hair and eyes. "Sage?"

"Yes, that's what I said. Do you think my name is funny?"

"Yeah, actually, I do."

I went for my wand. Ian laughed at the action, ignoring the threatening wand half-raised at my side.

"Wow, look at this stubby little twig." Ian's little friend said.

My wand was actually longer than your average wand, at sixteen inches. "I bet it's longer than your _twig_." I said meaningfully.

One of the three girls giggled, earning outraged looks from the other two. She had extremely curly bright red hair and freckles with glasses.

I smiled at her. "What's your name?"

"I'm Megan." She said shyly.

"Pleasure, Megan. And… you three." I said, looking up at the others. "Names?"

"I'm Britney, this is Jessica, and that's Mike."

Britney was a stunning Hispanic girl with long black hair, and Jessica was bleach blonde and tanned just like the boys. Judging by the way Britney was hanging on Ian's arm, they were "dating". They were a bit young for that, but with girls and guys like that it's normal. Jessica and Mike seemed equally engaged. Megan was quite obviously infatuated with Mike.

"You know those kids you were hanging out with?" Jessica whispered as we followed the prefects, "They're freaks. You can do so much better by hanging out with us. Brit and I could, like, give you a makeover. We're nice like that."

"Did you give Megan a makeover?" I asked.

She tittered. "Are you kidding? She's a Muggleborn. Anyway… Your dad's Jason Winter, right? The Undersecretary to Percy Weasly?"

"Oh, I see. Allow me to set the record straight: Yes, I've met Mr. Harry Potter, he's very nice. But I'm a lot more than Jason Winter's daughter and you had better get used to it."

"You'll be regretting that." Britney said.

I couldn't resist. "Make me."


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for the review, TheMutualEnemy! I'm glad I made things clear, I have problems with that. Thank you for reading too. I was clapping in excitement for such a nice first review, much to the amusement of my Muggle family. You know how those Muggles are…**

**Chapter 2: Stories**

_**~Sage's POV~**_

Oliver, the prefect, looked around at us first years. "Where is everyone else?"

"Amy had to tie her shoe and Kate stayed with her, and Jack and Lee had to go to the restroom. I imagine they got lost."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"They said they'd be back really fast, so I didn't bother. So I guess it's my fault. Sorry, sir."

"I'd report this and have Professor Anderson take a point from Gryffindor," Oliver's fellow prefect, Crystal, said, "But I have a feeling that's not what really happened. Did they ask you to cover for them?"

"I told you it's my fault." I said, sticking to my story.

"Hmm. Well, off to bed." Oliver said.

"I'd like to wait up for them."

"If Anderson catches you up, he'll take our badges." Crystal said. "Besides, you'll be late for class if you sleep in."

I sighed and trudged up the steps. The other girls had only left three beds open. I took the one in the corner and examined the drapes around it. Grr, burgandy.

My trunk was sitting neatly under the bed, so I opened it and looked for my books. The turnk was halfway packed neatly and to the fullest advantage of the space, and then the rest of it was haphazard where I'd gotten bored and started practicing with my wand, before I realized I was late packing it and freaked out.

I found my pajamas, black flannel pants and a matching top, and changed. Jessica was wearing skimpy satin lingerie and Britney was probably dressed in similar fare, but she was already under the covers wearing a facemask of a pasty yellow substance (I recognized it as Dermella's Nighttime Potion) and slices of salem fruit over her eyes with her hair wrapped in a fluffy white towel.

"What is this, a spa or a dormitory?" I muttered under my breath.

I heard Megan giggle again, then flush hot pink. I flashed her a wicked grin and continued trying to make my textbooks fit into my school bag.

Just then I heard Crystal lecturing the girls about warning them before they take any detours and staying where they are whenever they get lost in the castle. The door swung open. Amy and Kate were grinning sheepishly.

"Alright, this is your dormitory." Crystal said. "I assume you can find your beds without getting lost?"

I laughed, then returned to shoving _Hogwarts, A History_ into my bag.

The sixth year crossed to me, her beaded braids swinging prettily. Oooh, shiny… "Here, let me." Right. Packing a bag. Not looking at the shiny beads. (You are getting _very_ sleepy…)

She tapped my bag and murmured a spell. The books fell in and clattered to the bottom. I reached in. I could probably fit a broomstick or maybe a dragon in there.

Ooh, a _dragon_ in my school bag. Convenient.

I closed the bag and climbed into my bed as the other girls got ready. Even though I didn't feel tired at all, I pulled the covers up and closed my eyes. I was asleep before I had a chance to register that the beds were incredibly soft.

x-x-x-x-x

"Potions with the Slytherins, Herbology with Hufflepuffs, Charms with Ravenclaws, and then Defense Against the Dark Arts with more Slytherins." I read. "Oh, fun."

"Why Double Potions in the _morning_?" Jack whined.

I had to laugh. He reminded me of my brother, except I actually got along with him. My brother was in Slytherin like my dad, since my family is chock-full of ambitious purebloods. We'd been at odds for ages, with several amusing, light-hearted-yet-heated arguments each day.

Probably the reason for what my dad called impudence and my best friend Molly called spunk: my inability to shut the heck up when I was challenged.

"Well, I'm going to head towards the classroom. See you, Jack."

"Bye, Sage."

I pulled my bag over my shoulder and headed off. The class wasn't all that far away, but I wanted to explore. I'm not stupid enough to try sneaking off to explore after lights out, but I needed to know this place inside and out if I wanted to use it to my full advantage.

After a long straight stretch in a side corridor, I came to one of those blasted intersections that leave you wondering which way to go.

"If you're looking for Potions, young Gryffindor, you ought to be headed thataways." A ghost said, gliding out of a wall.

I didn't jump (much); our house elves randomly pop into rooms and start speaking, so I'm used to the occasional unexpected arrival. "Hello, Sir Nicholas."

"I suppose you're off to find some trouble to get mixed up in."

"Oh, I don't go looking for trouble, that's naïve. But I don't run away from it like a coward. If it finds me like usual, it finds me."

He laughed. "Okay. Watch out for Peeves, though; he's been quiet for a while; he must be planning something." And with that, Nearly Headless Nick floated off through the opposite wall.

I looked around and decided to start my map. If I ever needed to tell someone where to go, the map stored in my brain wouldn't be much good.

After a moment of studying the rough sketch I'd already started, I realised the four branches from the circular room they intersected through were located at north, east, south, and west. It was the center of the castle.

Good to know. I looked up and decided on north. (Why? you ask… Why the heck not?) Within a few steps, I felt that familiar and unfortunate sensation of my socks getting soaked. Great…

I looked down and examined the water on the floor. It was coming from the abrupt end of the hallway, a green and brown wall. Except it wasn't a wall.

I'd spent a fair amount of time in the Weasly's Wizarding Wheezes shop in Diagon Alley. I knew an Expandable Swamp when I saw one.

"Ooh, a little firstie."

Ah, that explained it: Peeves. I heard a pop not unlike a house elf Apparating and the poltergeist appeared.

"How goes it, Peeves? I see your latest prank is a growing success."

"Want some swamp mud? It does wonder for the complexion, and you certainly need it."

I laughed as he pelted me with mud. "I probably do." He was annoying, but the swamp thing was funny and I knew how to siphon surfaces clean. Besides, he _wanted_ a rise. And call me crazy, but I didn't want to give him what he wanted.

"You're no fun." He accused.

"I know. But there's this hot-headed Slytherin guy," Emphasis on hot. Ahem. "You can't miss him, amber eyes and auburn hair."

"Very amusing."

Great. Vin was standing right behind me, wasn't he? Of course he was.

"Heya, Vin."


	3. Chapter 3

**I'd like to thank The Harry Potter Lexicon for helping me understand the pricing and insert fun slang. It also allowed me to name my potion and is definitely ending up next to "Harry Potter Book of Spells" on my favorites bar. I suggest any fan check it out because it has amazing essays. *NERD***

_**Vin's POV**_

**Chapter 3: Monotropa Uniflora**

The Winter girl knocked on the door and it swung open. The teacher was examining something that looked like a large purple radish. Call me a pessimist, but that's never a good sign.

"Oh, good morning." She said in an oddly unfocused voice. "You two can take those seats in the back."

The smoke cleared from the room and I could see more of her. Ah, a blonde. That explained it.

The whole classroom was packed. I had no choice but to slide onto the bench and allow Winter to sit beside me. She for her part sat as far from me as possible. She reached into her small denim bag and pulled out a full size cauldron, setting it on the fire in front of us.

"It would appear my whole class is here… I'm Professor Lovegood."

Lovegood, Lovegood, where had I heard that name?

"_Merlin's pants, what is this trash?" Mother said, staring down at the brightly colored magazine. _

_I picked it up curiously. _"The Quibbler"_ by Xenophilius and Luna Lovegood._

_Mother slapped my hand. "Put that down, I was looking at it." She said. I dropped it and she threw it into the fire._

_What the heck was the point of that, I wondered._

"But I think you can call me Luna, there aren't any rules against it."

Okay, her voice was totally getting on my nerves. Very annoying. And what was she wearing? It was brightly colored and shiny, not at all professional.

"I don't have any assignments planned today, but I think you should brew whatever you can and want to brew. Surprise me. I do like surprises. I can tell you're disappointed. Don't worry, I won't fail you for messing up when you don't know what to do."

Wow, she was blunt.

"But I want you to work in pairs."

Dang it.

Winter turned to me. "I've got the best idea. But it involves going into the Forbidden Forest, so if you're not up to that we should do something else…" She grinned.

Winter wasn't all that bad. Even for a Winter. I nodded tersely.

"Professor, may we go out onto the grounds? I need to find _Monotropa Uniflora_."

"Ah, Grimm's Apathy Solution?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Well, I don't see why not. I think that you ought to convince Vin to drink it when it's done. He certainly needs it."

What's a stronger word for blunt?

x-x-x

"I'm still not sure why you want to make Grimm's Solution." I said, after the long silence in which we'd walked down onto the grounds.

"Because I want to find some Monotropa Uniflora."

"That's used in powerful sleeping draughts, ones that imitate death."

"Ironic, isn't it? That it's used for Grimm's Solution and for sleeping draughts?"

"Are you planning to make those draughts?"

"No, they're illegal." She reminded me. "I don't want to get arrested."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, please, your father would just pull some strings—"

"And make sure I get the maximum sentence so I learn to never embarrass him again."

I hadn't guessed that they weren't on the best of terms. She didn't seem the type to hold a grudge, but then again, her father was a Slytherin and she was a Gryffindor. Of course they didn't get along.

"Oh. So why _do_ you want to get them?"

"To cure your pessimism." She said, grinning wider than ever.

I folded my arms and glared at her. "That isn't funny. I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. Just because you see the cauldron as half-full doesn't mean that people who don't need curing." I said.

Winter rolled her eyes. "Chill. I only want the flowers because they're my very favorite."

Really? The corpse flower was rich girl's favorite flower? Maybe I was wrong about her…

My gaze landed on the gold pocket watch she was pulling out of her robe pocket. It was shiny and looked brand-new, but the long row of initials down it told me it was a well-kept family heirloom that had taken a recent enough trip to the jeweler in Diagon Alley, a man who overcharged royally.

"What? Oh, this. Father gave it to my brother when he got accepted to Hogwarts, so my brother gave it to me when my letter showed up."

"Nice little family tradition. It would sell for what, thirty Galleons? Fifty?"

"Seventy-seven Galleons, four Sickles." She said, walking faster with her shoulders hunched and her arms folded. I was getting to her.

"Aw, look at that, you know your prices. Why bother if Daddy's got enough in the bank to buy a gold watch for every day of your life?"

She spun on me. "Because I've had to pawn it seven times. He doesn't give me spending money, he makes me earn it myself and when I left home last year to see the world I got sick and he wouldn't even pay for medicine so I pawned everything I had to pay for a trip to St. Mungo's!"

I realized she was crying as she stalked off. I felt like crap.

We'd reached the edge of the forest, and Sage took two steps past the edge of the thick greenery and vanished.

"Sage!" I yelled, shoving my way through the branches and trying to find her. "Winter, get your butt back out here! You can't go tramping about this forest alone, there are confirmed sightings of acroman—"

Someone wrapped an arm around my waist, yanked me backwards, and clamped a hand over my mouth. I recognized the smell of Sage's perfume, juniper and something else… Lavender?

"Yes, there are giant freaking spiders. Merlin's beard, you pick the worst times to stop being a jerk, don't you?"

She let me go and I dusted myself off, looking around. We were on a path now, covered in hoof prints. I heard a pounding, like heavy footsteps… Centaurs?

They'd be really mad if we intruded on them, and we were going to get trampled. I grabbed her arm and yanked her into the clump of bushes. The were thundering past, hundreds of them.

I was really wondering what the heck she put in her perfume. It almost smelled spicy, like pepper. Hoping she wouldn't noticed, I sniffed ever so slightly at her shoulder.

"Lavender, juniper, pepper, clove, sea salt, fern, and vanilla." She whispered.

"Um. Okay?"

"Hey, you were wondering not me. Come on, there's something white growing over there."

I followed her through the bushes. There was a clump of white stems bent over like canes. I recognized it as the corpse flower, Monotropa Uniflora.

She picked one, pulled a flower press out of that denim bag, and put it in. Then she put two more in the vial and put everything back. Sage—Winter pulled out her wand, a long, thin, pale affair with natural swirls in it. "Willow?"

"Yes. Aguamenti!"

It was an advanced spell, but water shot out of her wand anyway.

"Where'd you learn that?"

"I've been making water appear since I was seven."

And with that, my ever-the-more-mysterious companion flounced off.


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks again for the reviews, everyone! I've double spell-checked this one to find my mistakes.**

_**Vin's POV**_

**Chapter 4: A Grim Solution**

"You've got to be kidding me. Why did you choose this potion again?" I asked.

"Because it's fun." Winter said as she ground the corpse flowers to a pulp with the mortar and pestle. "Just chop the onion, okay?"

"It's a gurdyroot, not an onion."

"Same to the freaking difference."

I brought the knife down on the onion—sorry, gurdyroot—with unnecessary force. It split open and released its foul smell. The juice splashed into my eyes and I missed the root the next time I sliced at it.

Winter pulled the knife out of my hand and shoved me aside gently. My eyes cleared and I watched her quickly chop it into tiny bits. "Ow, that stings." She muttered.

I scooped the flower pulp out of the mortar and into the cauldron as she dumped the little cubes in.

Winter dipped her finger in the remaining juices. "Here, let me see your eye."

I turned to ask her why and she poked my eye with her juice-covered finger. After a moment, the stinging went away. She did the same with the other eye and her own.

"You're welcome." She said passive agressively. "Pass me the green goo—I mean, aloe flesh."

Trying not to grin, I handed her the vial and turned my attention to powdering the betony wood.

"Oh, the liquid's bright green." I told her.

She added the aloe and it started boiling, slowly fading to an army green.

I tipped the bottle of vervain over the cauldron in as the bubbles petered out, and pointed my wand at the flames. The fire flared up and set it back to boiling.

"Okay, we've got an hour before it thickens enough to put the betony in." She said, closing her potions book and putting it away.

I finished crushing it and put my head down. "I know."

"We make a pretty good team."

"Are you insane? No we don't."

"You're right. I was just trying to smooth things over. So, you know my story and favorite flowers. Can I ask you a few questions to even the playing field?"

"No."

"Okay. What's your favorite color?"

I sighed and covered my ears. She prodded my hands with her wand. I sat up. "It's gold, okay?" I said hostilely.

"You should've been a Gryffindor."

"No, I shouldn't have. It's not based on colors."

"Yeah, I guess. If it was, I'd be in Ravenclaw. Now, what's your house life like?"

"Nope. My past is off-limits."

"Okay then… I take it you're a pureblood?"

"Yep." Suddenly, I felt tiny claws digging into my shoulder. "What the heck is that?"

"Oh, Wayde, you evil little rat. Come here." She scooped the creature off, her hands lingering just long enough for me to smell her perfume again.

"You've got a _rat_?"

"Yep. Let me guess… you've got a cat?"

"Yeah. Let me guess, you figured that out because we're opposites in every way so our pets should be opposites?"

"No, I figured it out because I noticed this in the forest."

I looked down to see her pinch a cat hair off my sleeve and hold it up.

x-x-x

The potion had turned gold, the precise shade of my favorite color, when Proffesor Lovegood came around at the end. I'd just added the betony. We'd talked for a long time about growing up as wizards and argued cats vs. mice for even longer.

"Hmm. Mind if I test the potion on your rat, Winter?" She asked.

"You _could_ test it on Vin."

The two girls turned to face me.

"Oh, never mind, Professor. Slytherins are cowards, he won't drink it."

I glared at both of them, dipped a beaker into the potion, and drank a little bit.

Winter grinned. "Five… Four… Three… Two…"

I was suddenly swept by a wave of emotions. Weird. I hadn't really _felt_ anything for years. For a moment the strange passion nearly crippled me, and then I heard Sage saying my name.

"Vin. Vin. _Vin_!Come on Vin, you're supposed to be a tough Slytherin. It's no fun defeating you with my awesome potion if you don't even fight it."

"What the heck did you put in that?" I asked. "I don't think it's supposed to freaking kill me."

"It's supposed to stop emotional detachment. Your reaction just shows you're too detached from the rest of the world." Professor Lovegood explained.

Have I mentioned that she is really blunt?

The bell rang. "See you, Vin." Winter said, before leaving.

The crazy blonde professor continued watching me with her large blue eyes as I left the classroom. Creepy, much?

**Not my best chapter. But I promise I'll make the next one better. Suggestions on who should be our Charms teacher? It has to be a Hufflepuff or a Slytherin.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Singing Nettles**

**Brun's POV:**

I had wondered if I would see the other people I'd met on the way to Hogwarts, and when I walked into Herbology I was pleasantly surprised to see Sage Winter had saved me a seat.

"Hey. This is Jack, that's Kate." She said, indicating the people on either side of her. "You can take that seat. Lee, Amy, this is Brun."

"Hi." I said.

Amy's hair was bright pink. Like, really bright pink. I'd never seen anyone with pink hair before.

"Is your hair naturally pink?" I asked.

She laughed. "No, it's usually black. I'm a Metamorphmagus."

I stared at her blankly.

Sage Winter clapped a hand to her forehead. "He's a Muggleborn, no wizard slang. Sorry, Brun. I forgot to mention that. Metamorghmagi are born shape-shifters, she can change her looks at will. You didn't mention that before." She said, turning to glare at Amy accusingly.

"It didn't come up." Amy shrugged.

"Alright, class. I'm Professor Longbottom. Put on your gloves. I'll be showing you how to work in safety today. Don't touch any plants. For instance, this little plant," Professor Longbottom swatted at dark red, spiky vine that had been creeping up on him, "Is a Venomous Tentacula and it will suck out your soul and drink your blood."

That didn't sound right. I'd been hanging around plants for a long time and the first book I picked up when I went to Diagon Alley was the one on magical plants. Sage and the other four Gryffindors were staring at him solemnly.

The professor laughed, shaking his head. "I'm _joking_. But it will devour you. It thinks it's sneaky, but if you keep an eye out you'll see the tendrils before they get a death grip on your limbs."

Kate raised her hand. "Sir, how can a plant think?" She asked before he called on her.

"Impulse control, Katie." Jack muttered.

Sage wiggled her fingers. "_Magic_."

Someone giggled. I looked up to see a girl who was slowly turning pink while her friends stared at her. Sage was grinning. I wasn't quite sure why. The girls next to the one who'd laughed folded their arms at the same time and looked away. What was their problem?

"Ignore them." Sage advised me. "They hate you."

"But I've never met them!"

"Exactly. They don't want to meet you. You're a muggleborn."

"That doesn't make sense."

Professor Longbottom cleared his throat. "Class?" He said sternly.

I jumped. "Sorry, Professor!"

"It's Katherine, isn't it?" He asked Kate.

"Kate. Or Katie. But not Kathy, that sounds old lady-ish."

"Okay, Kate. Plants like this can think, because they have a consciousness that isn't attached to a brain. Does that makes sense?"

"Yep. They can have a personality, right? Like, that one would be devious. What about normal plants, the ones that don't move, do they have consciousnesses?"

"Yes, they have personalities. I don't think the normal plants would be conscious. We judge their personality and consciousness by their movements, so it's hard to measure the immobile ones."

"Okie dokie." She said, sitting back on the stool.

"Now that we've cleared that up: remember to always wear your dragonhide gloves. Don't be afraid of asking to borrow a pair if you lose yours or forget them. Several plants in here, even though they're among the least dangerous, can cause some serious pain if they break the skin.

"Today we'll be repotting a few Singing Nettles. Ignore their music, I know it's terrible. Don't insult them, though; they've got spiky leaves and they're not afraid to use them. First fill the large, empty pots half-full with compost. Hold the plant firmly—not too tightly, you'll break the stems—and pull upwards. Simply move the plant over to the larger pots and place it in. Then fill the pots the rest of the way and pack it down lightly. After you give them a little water, they'll quiet down and I'll let you talk the rest of class. Sound fair?"

It sounded more than fair to me. There was a chorus of yeses.

But it took longer than it sounded. Firstly, the pots were stacked in the corner and we spent several minutes pushing to get them until Sage yelled "EVERYONE STOP!"

They did, without much grumbling at all. People don't argue with Sage very often.

"Thank you. Now, let's think about this, shall we? If there's no one behind you, take two steps back. If there's no one behind you now, take a few steps back. Come on. Okay, Brun, you stay at the pots. Pass them back. When the people behind you all have pots, _then_ you can take one for yourself. Then single file up to the compost bin. Tada, the magic of organization."

Jack grinned as he passed me with his pot and muttered, "She's something else, huh?"

I nodded and sat down. The nettle plants were humming, but when I pulled them up the leaves formed a mouth that was singing loudly and off pitch. They sung blues in my case, but I heard Lee's singing nursery rhymes and Sage was nodding to her plant's music, heavy metal rock. Amy's seemed to be singing an 80's ballad that had been rewritten to new lyrics. The lyrics were senseless rhymes and I could hardly distinguish them anyways.

The plant got louder and louder as I pulled it up. By the same token, it quieted when I put it in its new pot.

Amy passed me a large clump of compost. "Thanks." I said.

She shrugged, her hair slowly turning hot pink. I couldn't help staring at it; we just don't have that sort of thing in Little Whinging. Amy glanced at me, and it faded to a mousy brown before going a glossy black. She put it back in a clip and ducked her head.

Awkwardly, I tried to pretend to be busy and looked around for a watering can. "Hey, Sage, where's the watering can?"

"I'll water it for you." She suggested. Sage leaned over my plant and tapped it with her wand. "Aguamenti. There you go. No need to look so dismayed, I'm a freak and I've always been able to conjure water like that. Have you always been this good with plants?"

"Um, my parents say I've got a green thumb." I offered weakly.

"Well, the Devil's Snare behind you obviously likes you enough to be going after Amy instead of you."

Sure enough, a beige tentacle was wriggling through the air towards Amy. I hit it with a shovel. "Bad plant."

Sage laughed. "It's not an owl, it's a plant. Speaking of animals…" She patted her pockets and then threw her dirt-covered hands into the air. "Shoot! Has anyone seen a rat? He's brown and surprisingly well-groomed. Hard to miss, he never shuts up."

I ducked under the table and looked around. The Devil's Snare poked its way into my view and jabbed at the air to my left, kind of like it was pointing. Sure enough, a little rat was snuffling around a pot of daffodils that seemed to be quacking.

"Sage, he's right here."

She poked her head down and sighed. Sage scooped up the animal and tucked it back into her cloak pocket.

The bell rang and everyone rushed to the door. Everyone but me: I slowed and looked around. There were so many plants, and they all were unfamiliar yet soothing to me. Professor Longbottom looked up from another one of the daffodil plants and I hurried off to catch up to my housemates.

**I believe I repeatedly referred to a Professor Anderson. Please forget him and mentally replace that name with Longbottom. I don't want to put in more OCs than absolutely necessary.**

**Review. No, you say? *Imperio!* Now click the blue hyperlink. Don't bother fighting it. I know how to put intention behind my curses by now, I'm a rising fourth year. :p**


	6. Chapter 6

**Two weeks later, in the evening:**

"Fire in the south wing!" Archer Collins said, running into the common room. He stumbled to the ground, but jumped up and looked around urgently.

"Someone needs to lay off the fire whiskey." Logan muttered. "There's nothing to burn in a stone castle."

Tatiana tittered.

I, however, recognised the panic in his voice and stood up. "Have you told the headmistress?"

"She's not here; there's a staff meeting," Came the worried reply.

"Have you tried to get in?"

"There's a spell on the door. We can't hear them and they can't hear us, and the gargoyles outside aren't being very helpful."

I looked around. It was mostly second and first years that had yet to realise he was serious. "Where are the older students?" I asked the room at large.

"Quidditch try-outs." Logan's friend said.

It looked like things were up to me. I grabbed Archers arm and pulled him back out of the common room.

"Archer, was it a normal fire?" I asked as we hurried through the corridors.

"It had pure green flames, so I don't think so."

"Anyone else there?"

"I saw a Gryffindor trying to put it out. She looked like that first year girl, but she was using advanced Charms."

We rounded the corner and I saw the greenish glow. Sure enough, a panicking Sage Winter was trying to put the fire out. "Aquamenti!" She said, and a small portion of the fire hissed and produced a lot of smoke, but it seemed the more she put it out the more it managed to find wood.

Archer stopped dead, terrified. Comforting him would have to wait for later.

Another silhouette, dark against the emerald fire, seemed to be battling with a chair that wanted to throw itself into the flames. I recognised the Slytherin boy from the train, Vincent.

Something moved beside me. A little scrap of parchment-turned-ash was floating to the ground, embers still biting at the edges of the paper. It was like a battle between light and dark, separate from the similar one going on a few metres away. Speaking of which…

"Sage!" Someone else said.

I knew that voice, though it took me a moment to place it as that of Brun the Hufflepuff.

He was carrying a burning chair, the flames licking at it and trying to climb his arms. I could see that he wore elbow-length dragon hide gloves.

Sage turned and repeated the spell, dousing the chair.

"Hello." I said, stopping just out of reach of the fire. "How can I help?"

She paused and glanced over at Vincent. "You could go find the Bloody Baron—we're screwed if we can't stop him."

"Peeves the Poltergeist?"

"The one and only." Vin growled.

I took a quick glance around the hallway and knew there wasn't much time to spend running around after a ghost.

"Peeves." I said. "Mister Peeves, I need you to stop."

The poltergeist popped into view, still trying to throw the chair into the fire. "Why should I stop?" He asked.

Actually, I didn't really know why, but I did know he would only stop if he thought we weren't bothered by it. "Why not?"

Peeves paused, and Vincent took the opportunity to steal the chair and set in inside a nearby classroom. More of the fire was put out, since there was no new fuel.

"I'd be bored to death if I stopped." He said, flipping upside down.

I could be wrong, but I think that was a joke. Since poltergeists can't die.

"Well, Filch won't be here to throw a fit because of the staff meeting. Now, would that would be much fun? There's no point acting if no one's here to react. How about we help you disrupt… Professor Binns' class! It'll be hilarious."

"He did vote against me when I asked to come to the feast…"

"Precisely." I said, latching onto the idea. "Sage and I have History of Magic tomorrow after lunch."

I believe the phrase was "sold my soul to the devil".

Sage, however, sounded interested. "Molly will love this story. I'm in."

"Deal. Don't renege on this, firstie, or you'll regret it."

"You have my word." I said smoothly.

With a cackle, he disappeared.


End file.
